dispărea

Forms

dispărea, present dispar, third person dispare, past participle dispărut, subjunctive să dispară; second conjugation, like părea.^[1][2] A variant dispare of the third conjugation is also recorded.^[2][3] An old form with de- occurs in Pâcleanu: „Împreună cu dânsul despare și fortuna latinilor” “together with him the fortune of the Latins also vanishes”.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French disparaître, conjugated after părea (“to seem”).^[5][2][3][6] Wiktionary and Marcu and Maneca add Late Latin disparēre and Italian disparire as models.^[1][7]

The French verb was made with the prefix dis- on paraître (“to appear”), after the Late Latin verb, which meant “to cease to be visible”.^[8][5] The latter goes back to Late Latin parēscere, from Latin pāreō (“to appear”).^[5] The Italian verb is recorded from before 1294.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and DLR have it first in a document of 1776 in the Uricariul collection, in the abstract sense “to cease to exist”: „Să dispară cu desăvârșire toate scandalile” “let all the scandals cease completely”.^[3][4] DELR dates it to 1846, in Laurian.^[5] Tiktin has the same year.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The DLR's first sense, for abstract things, is to come to an end or stop existing; it is the sense of the oldest record.^[4] The sense “to vanish from sight” follows, and with it “to be lost without trace” and, of people, “to die”.^[2][10] MDA2 records further special senses: of publications, to cease to appear or to sell out; of goods, to be stolen; of plants, to wither; and, in the regions, “to flee one's home”.^[3] French had most of these senses by the early 18th century.^[8]

The noun dispariție was borrowed from French disparition and is recorded from 1848, in Negulici's dictionary, as is the obsolete disparadă; disparent “vanishing” dates from 1885.^[5]

Timeline

• 1776 – first record, să dispară “let it cease” in a document of the Uricariul collection.^[3][4]
• 1846 – in Laurian, DELR's first record.^[5][6]
• 1848 – dispariție and disparadă in Negulici's dictionary.^[5]
• 1864 – the verbal noun dispărere in the Civil Code.^[5]
• 1885 – disparent “vanishing”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To disappear, vanish: to go out of sight, to be no longer seen though still existing: Trenul a dispărut după deal. “The train disappeared behind the hill.”^[2][1]
2. To be lost without trace, to be no longer found: Mi-au dispărut cheile. “My keys have gone missing.”^[2][3]
3. To cease to exist, to die out: Obiceiul a dispărut de mult. “The custom died out long ago.”^[2][3]
4. Of people and animals, to die.^[2][11]

Word family

• disparent
• dispariție

Related words

• apărea
• părea
• French disparaître

Usage notes

A dispărea ca prin farmec means to vanish very quickly and without trace, as if by magic.^[3][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 320
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 728
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dispărea
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. dispărea
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dispărea
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. dispărea
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 130
11. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. dispărea